I will be analysing the elements of cinematography and mise en scene from Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Drive’. This film is about a mysterious man who has multiple jobs as a garage mechanic, a Hollywood stuntman and a getaway driver, seems to be trying to escape his shady past as he falls for his neighbor, whose husband is in prison and who is looking after her child alone. Meanwhile, his garage, mechanic boss, is trying to set up a race team using gangland money, which implicates our driver as he is the team’s driver. The driver gets more than he bargained for when he meets the man who is married to the woman he loves and tries to help him overcome debt he had acquired when in prison.
Drive is composed of many notorious and well known scenes. One scene that is particularly well known, is the scene in the elevator where we see a confrontation between the Driver and a hit man with Irene as a spectator. In the first shot of this scene, we are shown a mid shot of all three characters in the lift with Irene in the middle. When the doors of the lift close, we immediately see both the driver and the thug from low angles, adding to the intimidation and tension between the two and gives the impression of them both being strong and powerful. In the moment before they start fighting, time starts to slow down, adding tension and creating powerful drama. At this moment, when we witness the kiss between the driver and Irene, we see the driver as compassionate and quiet, like we have seen him frequently at the beginning of the film.
The lighting is heavily shadowed for the majority of the scene and goes from key lighting to low key lighting at the moment of the kiss, it also uses gold colour grading, suggesting a romantic setting which directly juxtaposes the horrific, gruesome violence following it. The use of high contrast shadowed lighting could suggest to us that the driver is trying to protect Irene and hide her from the danger and violence that will occur. The fact that he is heavily shadowed as well shows us that he’s ashamed about what he’s about to do and wants to shy away from his animalistic nature.
Another part of this scene that uses heavy shadows, is as the driver is stomping on the thuds head, the facial expressions we see here are nothing like we’ve seen on the driver before and portrays him as extremely angry and boarder line psychopathic, emphasising the theory that he’s ashamed of his animalistic anger and tried to hide in the shadows. As I’ve seen in my historical context, shadowing and low key lighting played a major role in film noirs and therefore is seen a lot in neo noir’s such as ‘Drive’. When he looks up at Irene after the violence is over, the shot uses rule of thirds, placing th driver slightly in the left of the screen whilst Irene is placed centrally in the shot. The fact that Irene isn’t placed in the same way as the driver, suggests that Irene is torn between sticking with the man she loves, and being horrified at his violent nature. Before she can pick a side, the elevator door shuts, leaving the audience in suspense and on edge, as they are to conflicted between liking and sympathising with the driver or hating him.
The props and costume in this scene are very minimal but have a significant impact. The only props really used in this scene is the gun, which is ironic because the trigger is never actually pulled but it triggers the sudden acts of violence from the driver. Irene’s clothes are plain and simple reflecting her innocent, childlike nature, whilst the driver wears his signature jacket which is old and worn, in comparison to the hit man who is dressed in a beige and orange suit making him seem like a trustworthy business man and the colour slightly matching the wood of the elevator and the lighting showing us his subconscious need to be hidden due to his profession. The drivers jacket is very significant in terms of foreshadowing, due to the scorpion stitched on its back. The symbolism of the scorpion comes from a Chinese fable about a scorpion and a from. The scorpion asks the frog to take him on his back across the river, the frog is afraid that is the scorpion rides on his back, he will sting him. The scorpion argues that is he stung him, he would drown too, so the frog agrees. However, halfway through the crossing, the scorpion stings the frog. When asked why, the scorpion simply pointed out that it was in his nature. This enforces the idea that the driver is incapable of living a normal and happy life with Irene because of his dangerous and violent nature.
This scene from ‘Drive’ uses many techniques often found in the classic film noirs such as the low camera angles and heavy shadows.
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